In for the long vac­cine game, Mer­ck buys in­to patch de­liv­ery tech with pan­dem­ic po­ten­tial

When Mer­ck dived in­to the R&D fray for a Covid-19 vac­cine ear­li­er this week, ex­ecs made it clear that they’re not nec­es­sar­i­ly look­ing to be first — with CEO Ken Fra­zier throw­ing cold wa­ter on the hot­ly-dis­cussed 12- to 18-month time­lines. But when it does emerge from be­hind, the phar­ma gi­ant clear­ly ex­pects to play a sig­nif­i­cant part.

Part of that will de­pend on next-gen­er­a­tion de­liv­ery tech­nol­o­gy that re­shapes the world’s imag­i­na­tion of a vac­cine.

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